NRLEA

Police captured 17 illegal immigrants who shot a sheriff’s deputy

Posted by NRLEA under Latest News

Police have have captured 17 suspected illegal immigrants in southern Arizona as the manhunt continues for smugglers who shot and wounded a sheriff’s deputy in remote Pinal county 50 miles south of Phoenix.

A coordinated effort from various law enforcement agencies have worked to find the suspect that shot a Pinal County Sheriff’s deputy on Friday April 30, 2010 in the desert southwest of Stanfield, Ariz.

According to FOX news, Pinal County sheriff’s Lt. Tamatha Villar says the deputy suffered a superficial wound to his abdomen after being shot with an AK-47 assault rifle.

Three of those captured overnight Friday were being questioned Saturday, sheriff’s Lt. Tamatha Villar said.

The deputy was released from the hospital, and is expected to fully recover.

One month ago a southern Arizona rancher was shot and killed by a suspected illegal border crosser.

The violence “should show the rest of the country what we Arizonans have known for too long — the unsecured border poses a very real and very immediate danger,” said U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D) to FOX news.

The events leading up to the shooting on Friday afternoon:

Deputy Louie Puroll, 53, was patrolling a well-known smuggling corridor near Interstate 8 when he came upon a stash of marijuana bales and five suspected smugglers. According to news reports, at least one of the suspects opened fire on him, tearing a chunk of skin from his back.

Puroll then radioed in that he was shot.

State and federal law enforcement agencies deployed helicopters and scores of officers to search a 100-square-mile zone for the suspects.

The Arizona Republic reported more than one of the police choppers came under fire during the manhunt on Friday.

Puroll, a 15-year department veteran, had been on the lookout for smugglers when he discovered the suspected smugglers, two armed with rifles, according to FOX news.

By April MacIntyre May 2, 2010, 16:34 GMT